The present invention relates to an oil extractor and, more particularly, to a cannabis oil extractor.
Medical Cannabis has been legalized in more than twenty states, while recreational cannabis is legal in four. Due to the increased legalization, there has been a growing need for a portable apparatus that can be used to extract oils easily, safely, and efficiently.
Currently, plant oil extraction is a long, tedious, and often times dangerous process. Common oil extraction techniques employed in the medical cannabis industry use alcohol, hexane, and other volatile solvents that require hours of distillation and purification. In most cases, the fumes from these volatile solvents are not recovered, but are instead made to evaporate into the surrounding air, which create health, fire, and environmental hazards. Lately, there has been a large demand for cannabis oil, and supply cannot meet demand because of these laborious and hazardous processes.
Another method involves cooking the plant material in hot oil for half an hour, straining the plant material, and setting it aside for use in cakes and pastries. Cooking of the cannabis requires high temperatures, which changes the structure of THC, making it psychoactive. For patients, needing larger doses to alleviate symptoms of certain ailments, the increased psychoactivity limits the patient's intake. Therefore, proper doses may not be achieved with cooking.
As can be seen, there is a need for a device to safely, effectively and quickly extract oils from cannabis.